"Far more than a history, this brilliantly illustrated volume offers a reconstruction in human terms of the many facets of Rome's extraordinary legacy. The Romans speak to us here through their splendid achievements and their tragic failures, their monuments and their tastes, to give us an understanding of the spirit behind these dramatic events. From village to Empire, for nearly a millennium Rome kept up a dizzying pace of change and expansion. Stirring victories over Hannibal, the Gauls, the Britons alternated with peaceful intervals of cultural development under Augustus and Marcus Aurelius, until the final days of chaos and decline." "Those thousand years take shape on the pages of Professor Cunliffe's beautiful book to give us a gradually unfolding vision of a people who once lived and of a resplendent world now in ruins." "Instead of a textbook, he has virtually recreated Rome itself, a world opening up, maintaining its brief, fragile balance, and then collapsing. The whole dynamic nature of the process is evoked here by the use of historical passages alternating with concise analytical views of daily life." ""The rise and fall of a great empire," Professor Cunliffe writes, "cannot fail to fascinate us, for we can see in such a story something of our own time. But of all the empires that have come or gone, none has a more immediate appeal than the Empire of Rome. It pervades our lives today."" "The sheer vastness of the Empire was staggering. At its height, it extended across 2,600 miles east to west, and 2,000 miles north to south. But these figures mean little. Even understood as reaching from the north of Britain to Africa, and engulfing Spain, Germany, and lands as far as the Persian Gulf, Rome does not come alive until captured - as in this book - through glimpses of shops and villas, the voices of people, the echoing theaters, baths, temples, and slums." "And Professor Cunliffe provides them for the reader. Along with the history of Rome's growth and dominion, he has added a careful history of her changing political, social, and cultural institutions. But above all, the Romans themselves speak. Cicero, Seneca, and Petronius seize the flavour of the Roman experience. Marius, Pompey, and Caesar use the urban mob as a pawn in their power games. Livy pieces together the city's origins from folklore. Even the coins transmit news and instill piety, ultimately becoming devices for propaganda." "Tombstones, monuments, bawdy and political graffiti, and private letters miraculously preserved give us a wealth of human details - the voices that gave life to Rome and her Empire..." "A young soldier writes home to Egypt: "Dear mother, I hope this finds you well. When you get this letter, I will be much obliged if you will send me some money...."" "On a wooden tablet from London written by a master to his servant in Rome: "I believe you know I am very well. If you have made the list, please send. See that you turn the slave girl into cash...."" "Lucretius the Epicurean explains natural phenomena in terms of philosophical concepts; Vitruvius lays down the rules of architecture; the poets and playwrights all help enrich the fabric - and our heightened understanding - of Roman life." "In this handsome book, such materials provide readers with the eloquent testament and indestructible evidence of a city that emerged from obscurity in 500 B.C. and directed the civilized world until the birth of Constantinople in 500 A.D." "Featured among the volume's 1,000 illustrations, of which half are in full color, are superb photographs by former Life correspondent Brian Brake and by Leonard von Matt. These stunning works are augmented by additional photographs, reproductions, portraits, engravings, maps, and drawings that capture even more of the gifts that have been handed down to us by the Romans."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A survey of Roman art and culture from the time of the first settlements on the eastern bank of the Tiber to the moment when secular Rome was succeeded by ecclesiastical Rome during the Middle Ages. For a long time Roman art was considered essentially nothing but a derivative, provincial form of Greek art. It is the special aim of the author to stress the unique quality of Roman culture and to present it as a national art, in spite of all the outside influences.

A major new history of the spectacular rise and fall of the ancient world's greatest empire

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE KANSAS CITY STAR From Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian, comes a riveting, magisterial account of Rome and its remarkable ascent from an obscure agrarian backwater to the greatest empire the world has ever known. Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world’s preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome’s rise to glory into an erudite page-turner filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome’s shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire. And he outlines the corrosion of constitutional norms that accompanied Rome’s imperial expansion, as old habits of political compromise gave way, leading to violence and civil war. In the end, unimaginable wealth and power corrupted the traditional virtues of the Republic, and Rome was left triumphant everywhere except within its own borders. Everitt paints indelible portraits of the great Romans—and non-Romans—who left their mark on the world out of which the mighty empire grew: Cincinnatus, Rome’s George Washington, the very model of the patrician warrior/aristocrat; the brilliant general Scipio Africanus, who turned back a challenge from the Carthaginian legend Hannibal; and Alexander the Great, the invincible Macedonian conqueror who became a role model for generations of would-be Roman rulers. Here also are the intellectual and philosophical leaders whose observations on the art of government and “the good life” have inspired every Western power from antiquity to the present: Cato the Elder, the famously incorruptible statesman who spoke out against the decadence of his times, and Cicero, the consummate orator whose championing of republican institutions put him on a collision course with Julius Caesar and whose writings on justice and liberty continue to inform our political discourse today. Rome’s decline and fall have long fascinated historians, but the story of how the empire was won is every bit as compelling. With The Rise of Rome, one of our most revered chroniclers of the ancient world tells that tale in a way that will galvanize, inform, and enlighten modern readers. Praise for The Rise of Rome “Fascinating history and a great read.”—Chicago Sun-Times “An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city’s 500-year rise to empire.”—Kirkus Reviews “Rome’s history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism.”—The Dallas Morning News “[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events.”—Maclean’s “Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject.”—The Spectator “[An] engaging work that will captivate and inform from beginning to end.”—Booklist

This sweeping history of the Roman Empire from 44 BC to AD 235 has three purposes: to describe what was happening in the central administration and in the entourage of the emperor; to indicate how life went on in Italy and the provinces, in the towns, in the countryside, and in the army camps; and to show how these two different worlds impinged on each other. Colin Wells's vivid account is now available in an up-to-date second edition.

A discursive look at the key debates that evolved from this period of the Roman Empire.

What went wrong in imperial Rome, and how we can avoid it: “If you want to understand where America stands in the world today, read this.” —Thomas E. Ricks The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds since the beginning of our republic. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action—or a dire warning of imminent collapse. In this “provocative and lively” book, Cullen Murphy points out that today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place, and reveals a wide array of similarities between the two societies (The New York Times). Looking at the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of bribery in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization, Murphy persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside—two things that must be changed if we are to avoid Rome’s fate. “Are We Rome? is just about a perfect book. . . . I wish every politician would spend an evening with this book.” —James Fallows